Dickerson falls short of Super Two cutoff

MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes reported on Thursday that this year’s Super Two cutoff is two years and 146 days of service time. By my unofficial count, Chris Dickerson will fall short of that cutoff by just seven days. He came into the season with two years and 48 days of service time according to Cot’s, and I have him on the active roster for 91 days in 2011. That brings him up to two years and 139 days of service time, or one week short.

Had Dickerson qualified as a Super Two, he would have been arbitration-eligible this offseason and another three times before free agency. Instead, he will earn close to league minimum in 2012 before three years of arbitration. In a way, it might have saved his job. Had Dickerson qualified as a Super Two, there’s a chance the Yankees would have non-tendered him rather than pay him a low-seven figures salary. That’s unlikely though, Dickerson’s a useful player since he can hit righties (.341 wOBA) and play pretty good defense at all three outfield spots. He’ll just do that while earning slightly less money in 2012.

Laird is likely to stick around. Don’t know if they’ll guarantee Cervelli a major league spot

Will try to re-sign:

Martin, Chavez, possibly Garcia

Possibly to likely gone:

Jones, Posada, Golson, Curtis, Colon, Mitre, Mesa

ikl

Kontos is a definite, I think. They wouldn’t have added him to the 40-man roster in September if they were going to cut him over the winter. The point of the move was presumably to protect him from the rule 5 draft in the winter. Otherwise they could have left him off the roster and made another team keep him on the 24 man all year if they wanted to get him.

I sort of think that they will keep Mesa despite his pathetic numbers this year. They seem to think that he has upside since they could have DFA’d him at various points in the last year when they needed to free a roster spot.

I would be very, very surprised to see either Laird or Cervelli cut although either could be traded.

I probably would put Jones on the “will try to resign list” as he seems useful as a righty bat with power, but I see why you wouldn’t. Keeping Maxwell seems like a clue that the Yankees either don’t want to resign Jones or don’t think that he will resign with them.

Whelan is one I’m not sure what to think about – I would think that they keep him based on his performance in AAA and that fact that they throws hard. But they didn’t recall him in September for no apparent reason . . .

Phelps and Mitchell should be added to the 40 to protect them from the rule 5. But it seems like every year there are some surprise additions. So maybe Venditte or Adams makes it. Venditte could be an interesting Rule 5 pick for a losing team that needs to generate fan interest . . .

In general, it seems that 40 man spots aren’t that scare for the Yankees this winter. There are a number of players who they will probably keep because they have the space but who wouldn’t be a big deal to cut (i.e. Pena).